Dunkin' Donuts

Unfortunately we don't have a Dunkin' Donuts in the Netherlands.
(Maybe that should be fortunately)

But in Germany they do!

While walking around Dusseldorf's Christmas Markets we walked past the Dunkin' Donuts and of course Heidi noticed and insisted we stop and buy some.

I secretly hoped that the donuts would taste bad, but no such luck, they were very fresh and very good.

Ironically it is not their taste that I like best, but their beauty.
The bright colours, the sprinkles on top, the shiny icing...
Yes, it really is a good thing we have to drive to another country to buy some!

Melkkos

My husband simply loves Melkkos.
It is a truly South African dish, eaten either as a warm and filling breakfast or as a dessert.
This morning my husband decided to make it for us as a special treat.

The main ingredient is milk, about 1 litre which you need to bring to the boil.

In the meantime add 1.5 cups flour, 1.5 tablespoon butter, pinch of salt and two tablespoons of sugar into a big bowl. Now rub the mixture together with your hands until you have breadcrumb like consistency.

Add the flour mixture a little bit at a time to the boiling milk and stir, stir, stir.

Once you've added everything you need to let it simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously.

The consistency will be similar to that of porridge.

In a little bowl mix 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon. Add the cinnamon sugar to the Melkkos and mix well.

Serve and enjoy!

Salted Caramel Millionare's Shortbread

You might think I am a little silly, but the main reason I made this dessert was because I had a can of condensed milk in the cupboard. I typed 'condensed milk' into the BBC Food web page and did a search.

Salted Caramel Millionaire's Shortbread came up.

It seemed like the perfect dessert for a picnic.

Two things to note...
1. I have never made shortbread.
2. I have never made caramel.

Did that stop me? No, no, no.

Here is a link to the recipe.

I followed it to the letter. However, there were some problems.
The caramel wasn't quite as simple to make as I had hoped... in fact, it was a bit of a disaster!

It split. I mean the condensed milk mixture totally separated from the butter.
I thought I was going to have to just throw it all away, but miraculously I managed to save it. I got rid of the butter, and transferred the remaining caramel to a cold ceramic bowl. Then I stirred it until it became a lovely smooth caramel which was just right in the end.

The shortbread turned out beautifully. All in all it was a bit of a learning curve for me but the dessert was excellent.

It is not called Millionaire's shortbread for nothing - it is very rich so you only need a little bit at a time.

Brioche Bread and Butter Pudding Experiment

I had a lot of Brioche when I came back from Paris.
Way too much.

So I decide to use up most of it in an experiment.

Since I've never eaten nor made bread and butter pudding, I figured why not now?

I didn't really think it through that well... and I had to make do with the ingredients that I had in the house so all in all it wasn't exactly perfect. But it tasted good and next time it will be even better!

Lessons learnt:
- Make enough custard to cover the  bread in your baking dish OR use a smaller dish. This is critical - the bread must be COMPLETELY covered.
Mine wasn't and the top layer turned out too dry - edible but just plain dry.
- Serve it with something like fresh cream or ice cream. We didn't have any in the house and I felt like the dessert needed that additional element.

Ingredients:
2 cups milk - heated to boiling point
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
enough day old brioche to fill a square or rectangular oven dish with about 2 layers of bread

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease an oven dish and set aside.
Stir the butter into the hot milk until it has melted. Add 1/4 cup of the butter-milk mixture to the eggs and whisk them until the mixture is well blended. Add the warmed egg mixture back into the hot milk and whisk in the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon until the mixture is smooth.
Spread the brioche into the prepared dish, pour the custard over the brioche until it fills the dish. Bake it for 40 minutes, until the top is browned and a knife inserted comes out clean. Serve it warm with whipped cream or ice cream.


Here is a link to the recipe I used as a starting point. 

Malva Pudding

Now this is a truly South African dessert.

Malva Pudding is a baked dessert which just melts in your mouth. Serve it warm slathered with custard or a scoop of vanilla ice cream and you will be in heaven. You and your family and your friends. It is that good.

Best avoided if you are on a diet though...

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
0.5 cup sugar
1.5 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon apricot jam
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon bicarbonate of soda
1 egg
a pinch of salt

Syrup ingredients:
125 gram butter
1.5 cups milk
1 cup sugar

Serves 4 (just double it if you are more than 4 people, or a bit of a glutton like me)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease an oven dish.
Beat the egg and the sugar together until pale.
Add everything except the milk and bicarbonate of soda and mix well.
Then add the milk in which the bicarbonate of soda has been dissolved and mix together.
It is quite a runny batter.
Pour into the greased oven dish and bake for one hour until dark and baked through.
Insert a skewer and if it comes out clean then you know it is done.
In a saucepan, bring the syrup ingredients to the boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Remove the pudding from the oven and prick some holes into the pudding with the skewer.
Now pour the syrup over the pudding.
It will be absorbed into the pudding within a few minutes...

Serve while warm, either with custard or vanilla ice cream.

Pure heaven.